“If not now, when else can we throw her out. Mother. Dertosse isn’t going to show up right now anyway…! This wasn’t how I planned it, but… look at that blood. It’s obvious!”

“Illia. B, but.”

Illia, who had always been like a woman possessed when it came to anything that benefited her, looked down at her as though she had forgotten all sense of shame.

“How convenient. Right. We can get rid of her cleanly right now.”

And watching Illia like that, the color drained from her mother-in-law’s face, which had seemed composed just moments before.

“Throw her out quickly. Yes! That’s exactly what we should do. Take her far away and be done with it. No, it might even be fine to go and kill her.”

In the end, they had made up their minds to do the one thing they absolutely should not have, and looked down at her.

Having made their decision, they didn’t hesitate for even a moment. When Illia flicked her hand, the men who had come in with her closed in around her.

“N, no! What are you trying to do! Hmm?”

“How dare a maid raise her voice. If you don’t want to get thrown out with her and end up in a sorry state, shut your mouth!”

“No. Absolutely not!”

Karla spread her arms wide and stood in front of her.

“Drag her out!”

“N, no! My lady!”

Even as she was dragged away with both arms held, Karla kept calling out to her.

But Karla, if she called out to her here, your future would become uncertain. If you got branded as a maid she favored, she couldn’t guarantee your future if everything fell apart. You would sink even deeper into the mud.

And so she deliberately avoided meeting her gaze.

“Now drag this one out too. Show everyone clearly who the master of this household is!”

Just as everyone was hesitating, one maid seemed to make up her mind and stepped toward her. The rest followed and surrounded her.

“What do you think you’re doing? The maids of the marquisate are going to seize me and drag me out!”

“We will follow Miss Illia’s orders.”

But they didn’t know. Pertra, the head maid who truly had a sharp mind, was not stepping forward in this situation. The one who had claimed to be on her mother-in-law’s side right in front of her was keeping her distance and watching how things unfolded.

“What is the meaning of this, my lady?”

And at exactly the right moment, a familiar voice greeted her once again.

The person who had been hidden from view for a brief moment because of those surrounding her was Mary. She pushed through the maids and quickly dropped to her knees on the floor.

“Mary.”

But just as she called her name, her mother-in-law strolled over with her arms folded.

“Mary. You don’t need to concern yourself with this.”

“What do you mean by that, my lady?”

“You’ve had a hard time serving under that thing all this while. We’re throwing that one out starting today.”

“Pardon?”

Surprised by the unexpected words, Mary looked back and forth between her and her mother-in-law. It was then that her mother-in-law’s face hardened.

“Did you not understand what I said? That thing is getting thrown out. So your work here is done as well. Get ready to go back to the duchy. Honestly, I was never fond of you either. The duchess clearly sent you here as an etiquette instructor for that thing, and yet you’ve been acting like a devoted maid to that wretched girl, haven’t you?”

“No. I have only done as the duchess instructed.”

“…If only you weren’t a maid of the duchy…”

Her mother-in-law ground her teeth as she looked at Mary, then snorted and stepped between her and Mary to separate them.

“Go, while I’m still asking nicely.”

“However, I cannot leave this place until the duchess tells me to.”

“What?”

“And I would ask that you show me proper courtesy. Although I have come here, I came temporarily to teach etiquette, and I am a maid of the duchy.”

“Ha? I spoke to you so pleasantly, and this is what I get. Do you think the duchess will listen to you, or to me, the mother of Dertosse?”

“I believe she will listen to me. I am Lady Rechel’s person.”

Mary did not yield a single word.

If anything, it was her mother-in-law and Illia who seemed to be getting tangled up by Mary.

“Mother. What are you doing! Throw her out too, right now.”

“But she belongs to the duchy. If something were to happen to her…”

“That’s a problem for later.”

“…Right. Honestly, Lady Rechel might even want her gone.”

Her mother-in-law, who had been smirking, grabbed Mary’s wrist and yanked her hard.

“So you step aside!”

“I cannot.”

“Why, you!”

And just as her mother-in-law’s voice kept rising.

“What is all this commotion?”

A voice full of fury filled the hall.

Her, sitting slumped on the floor. Her mother-in-law, locked in a standoff with Mary. And Illia, who had been standing back and ordering her dragged out immediately. Every single person in that place froze in an instant.

And on top of that, the view in front of her opened up like a sea parting. It was because the maids who had been blocking her were scrambling to step back.

“…D, Dert, why are you here!”

“…Why is Mother out here? I clearly gave orders for her to be kept in her room!”

“W, well, that…”

“That was me! What kind of person locks their own mother in her room? I went to see you myself last time and said as much, and you’re still keeping Mother locked up? Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m not out of my mind. If anything, the one who isn’t in her right mind is Mother. The kind and gentle mother I knew no longer exists, Sister.”

“Ha. Something has a real hold on you, doesn’t it? Mother is perfectly fine!”

Dertosse, who had by now drawn close to the scene, looked at her sitting on the floor and pressed his lips together.

“Evie!”

“Dertosse… don’t come near me.”

She bowed her head, making a show of trying to keep him from coming closer.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Don’t come near me. I said don’t come…”

Only then, as though sensing something, Dertosse looked around. Whether he had just noticed the fake blood she had scattered, he scooped her up into his arms, his face drained of color.

“Blood, there’s blood…!”

“I told you not to come!”

“…How did this happen…”

She said nothing and looked at Illia and her mother-in-law before pressing her lips together.

“I don’t want to talk about it. So let go of me… I can walk on my own.”

Even so, she didn’t forget to furrow her brow so that Dertosse would be taken in. Clutching her stomach like someone who had truly been through something. He seemed to have some instinct for this sort of thing, because Dertosse’s lips trembled before he turned to look at Illia and his mother.

“…If… if anything happens to Evie… if my child has been harmed in any way… I will not let either of you off.”

“D, Dert! Are you threatening me right now! Huh? Harmed in any way? How do you even know it’s your child! I, I was only trying to confirm it. That child…”

“So that’s why you left Evie like this? To confirm it? I don’t want to hear it. Evie seems to need a physician’s attention, so don’t get in the way.”

Dertosse’s sharp voice, a tone she had never heard from him before, filled the hall. It was cold enough to freeze both her mother-in-law and Illia where they stood.

“Have Mother confined to her room. If I see Mother outside again even once… I will not let the person responsible off. And have Sister confined to a room as well. This matter will need to be investigated.”

“……”

“Is there no one in this marquisate who listens to me?”

Only then did the butler quickly bow his head.

“Y, yes, understood.”

Watching his sharp demeanor, she wiped at the corners of her eyes, which had no reason to be wet.

“Now, of all times… now, of all times…!”

“I’m sorry, Evie. I’m late. Let’s go to your room first. And then… get you seen by a physician… and rest for a bit. We can talk about why you were sitting on the floor… and what happened…”

“What’s the point of hearing it. Do you want to confirm it too…? I already… I already knew. From the moment I tumbled down the stairs… from the moment the blood poured out onto the floor with that terrible pain, I already knew. What… what is it you want to hear!”

“Evie.”

“I was so frightened… seeing Mother and Illia trying to throw me out at any moment… trying to kill me along with the child. You were the only one I could trust, and you were nowhere to be seen… and in the end, in the end…”

She placed her hand on her stomach.

There was no way there was a child in her belly right now. The red blood from just moments ago had only been pig’s blood she had obtained in advance and broken open. Even so, something in her chest sank heavily.

That was probably because of… the child who had died without ever being born in her past life. Because she had never even been able to say goodbye.

This was the very thing she had never wanted to do. But from the moment she had decided to lie about being pregnant, this had become something she had no choice but to do.

It was absolutely not out of any lightness of heart over losing a child that she had deceived Dertosse with a false pregnancy and slowly taken over the household.

If anything, she felt sorry, endlessly sorry, toward the child. Because it felt like killing her child a second time. But even for the sake of avenging the child, this was something she had to do. She wanted to believe that.

‘I’m sorry, my baby.’

Her child, who remained an eternal weight on her heart.

The only one who was truly and wholly on her side, who could have loved her in return.

Strangely enough, having planned the false pregnancy and lived with it for a while, she had felt the same warmth and steadiness she had felt before. A feeling that a child was inside her even though she wasn’t pregnant. And because of that, she had felt like she could do anything.

Perhaps that was why. In this moment, being carried by Dertosse to her room after the false pregnancy had come to its end, a single tear fell.